What Happen's Next?
by EchoedShadows
Summary: The result of an English assignment for the continuation of Maniac Magee.


**Chapter 47**

Screams, the sound of running. Black. Absolute, unending, black. Jeffery Lionel Magee was for the first time, in a very long time, scared. The last thing he remembered was the feeling of being hit in the side by something large. Then pain, and black.

As he lay there he became aware of beeping. A methodical beeping sound, while not soothing began to lull him to sleep. Just as he was about to nod off, a click sounded, and then the sound of heels against the tile floor. In the almost silent room the sound of high heels was almost deafening. Soon the sound stopped only to be replaced with the harsh sound of a pen or pencil scratching against a piece of paper.

Hours, days, weeks, months, years? He wasn't sure how long he had been there. The only thing he was sure of was the sterile smell, beeping, and the blackness. He wasn't sure how many times the person had returned, sometimes to write and sometimes to fiddle with something around the area of his head.

"Jeffery are you awake?" a voice asked one day instead of just writing and leaving.

Awakened from his reverie, it took him a few minutes to remember who Jeffery was, and then he could only nod in surprise. He had forgotten the sound of a voice just as he could barely remember color and the scent of flowers.

"…arms or legs?" Came the voice again.

"What?" Jeffery managed weakly.

"Can you move your arms or legs?" asked the voice again with a touch of impatience.

Jeffery tried to move something ANYTHING. Nothing. The beeping noise which had been so consistent before finally began to speed up as he panicked and shook his head wildly. The voice was alternately trying to calm him and get a sedative.

More footsteps came in a rush. Commanding voices and hastily leaving steps. Yells and the sound of running, for the second time followed him into the blackness.

**Maniac Magee **

**Chapter 48**

"Surgery was a success." A deep voice was saying as Jeffery awoke. "In a few days he should be able to move again. Everything seems fine."

"Except for the fact that he can't see!" followed by sobs from a low female voice. "So what if he can move now! Couldn't you fix his sight?"

"Mrs. Beale, Jeffery Magee has secondary Glaucoma. Which can be caused by being hit in the eyes like what happened to Jeffery. I'm sorry but there is no cure."

Sobs sounded from Mrs. Beale's direction.

"Oh be quite. It's not like he's dead or paralyzed… anymore!" Came a harsh voice that he immediately recognized.

"Aunt Dot!" He said, then immediately regretted it as he started to cough. A glass of water was put up to his mouth and he drank it gratefully. The cool water reminded him of why he needed it in the first place. "Aunt Dot?" he asked "What happened?"

At this question there were 2 gasps and the doctor started muttering about possible causes for amnesia. Whatever that was…

"Oh Maniac don't you remember? You had a football accident you were hit in the side, and hit your head." Said Mrs. Beale.

"Who's Maniac?" questioned Jeffery

"You are. Don't you remember?"

After this Jeffery started to panic. Why couldn't he remember anything? Why was there some strange lady here that acted like she knew him very well? He felt the blackness again and this time gratefully surrendered, to escape.

**Maniac Magee**

**Chapter 48**

**4 weeks later………….**

As Jeffery was rolled out of the hospital he breathed a sigh of relief as the scent of fresh air hit him. After he heard about his life in Two Mills that he had forgotten, he hadn't wanted to go back home with his Aunt Dot, as he had known they would make him, because she was his legal guardian. His life in Two Mills just sounded too good to be true. In Two Mills he had friends and people who didn't just use him to make some one else jealous like his aunt and uncle.

It was irritating knowing that he had memories of friends and people and not actually remembering them for himself. The doctors had said that his memories might fully come back, but they might not. There was no sure chance of it. His wheelchair hit a bump and he was jerked out of his thoughts. They had arrived at the car and Jeffery was lifted in.

When they got home Jeffery entered the house and was hit with the nauseating smell of something that almost….. Seemed like blood. The house was silent. Jeffery remembered some of the time that he lived there. There was always music. His uncle listened to old polka or country music (which Dot hated) to irritate her and drown out the sound of her voice. Now there was nothing. It felt like 10 o'clock but not even the crickets were chirping.

Something was wrong. His aunt had be silent the whole ride home and usually she would complain to him about his uncle or the neighborhood gossips. It's like she's… thinking or nervous about something.

Later that night as Jeffery lay in bed thinking, he heard a scream. It wasn't an 'Ah-it's-a-mouse/rat-scream.' It was an 'A- a-crazy-stalker's-out-to-kill-me-because-I-accidentally-obstructed-their-view-of-a-celebrity!' scream. He wanted to go and see what it was but he didn't really remember the layout of the house so walking around while he was blind might not be the best idea. Again the scream came, though it was muffled. Jeffery started to freak out. It wasn't his aunt screaming and no one else lived there except for his uncle who he hasn't heard in the house. The house wasn't very large either. It was a modest two-story house with four bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a kitchen, living room, entryway, and office. The scream came again though softer and sounded final he knew that it was going to be the last one.

The next morning Jeffery was awoken by the smell of bacon and almost burnt toast. As he sat up in bed his aunt came in and helped him downstairs. As he ate breakfast he remembered the screams from last night.

"Aunt Dot last night I heard screaming…. What… who was it?" His aunt seemed to hesitate before replying

"It was a movie Jeffery, just a silly horror movie."

"Oh…. What was it about?" Here again she seemed to hesitate before she said, "Vampires. It was about a group of vampires in a town by a beach who make a bet to see how can turn the most people without getting caught."

"Why were people screaming?"

"…Because….they were scared when people all of the sudden bit them."

After this Jeffery silently finished his breakfast and was helped upstairs to his room. A few hours later he felt his way along the wall to the bathroom. When he got there he felt something sticky on the side of the walls and wondered how long his aunt had been acting strange. She was usually an obsessively clean person. Everything had its rightful place and never was there a speck of dust or dead bug laying around for long. It was frightening. So many things were different. No uncle, Dot was quite, things were… unclean, and his aunt was watching horror movies. She never used to watch horror movies. At least she didn't when he was younger he wasn't sure about now.

Dismissing this mystery from his mind he went about his business and tried to stumble back to his room. He got lost. The walls all felt the same. He also didn't know where his aunt was. This was just great. He was blind, lost in his own home, and didn't know where his aunt was so she could help him find his room so he could mope about his circumstances. As he continued to aimlessly walk down the halls he heard a noise. I sounded sort of like…..some one was moaning in pain.

As Jeffery turned the knob to the room and stepped in the sounds got quieter and it he thought he heard it say,

"No No Please No……" over and over again like the person was expecting to be tortured or something. He wondered what this person was doing in his aunt's house. If she knew about or…..the thought popped into his mind… What if she caused it… Jeffery began to get frightened. What if his aunt was a mass murderer and was holding this person hostage. Or maybe… this person might be his uncle and that's where the screams were coming from last night. Not a horror movie but a real live person who was most likely tortured or something by his aunt. His aunt, who had not always been kind, but never extremely mean either. She never used to kill bugs or anything preferring to let him do it. Jeffery started to hyperventilate and fell to the floor hitting his head. He felt pain and then nothing…………………….

And he woke up to see the walls of Amanda's room.

"Hey Maniac ready to play some football?" asked Amanda as she brightly bounced into the room.


End file.
